McGirr Fumes Over Health Staff Pay Bungle

NSW Leading Independent Candidate, Dr Joe McGirr, today demanded the Keneally government and called on Carmel Tebbutt the State Health Minister to explain why junior doctors at the Wagga Wagga Base Hospital had recently not been paid for a month.
“We face enough challenges in trying to attract health professionals to this and other rural areas without government bureaucracy standing in the way. It is even more difficult when we ask these very same staff to work in the such antiquated, out-dated facilities as Wagga Wagga Base Hospital.”
“Not getting their pay on time - it beggars belief. These are people we often ask to work long hours with overtime and on call and they are rewarded like this”
Dr McGirr said members of the public had approached him with their concerns on learning from junior doctors that they had not been paid for a month.
“Even people from outside the health system know about this and that we should not treat our health professionals this way.”
The issue highlights my previously raised concerns about the funding and local control of the new “local” health networks.
“Is this a funding issue? Or is it a question of layers of bureaucracy between Wagga and Sydney?”
“This needs fixing immediately - How much local control does the network have if they cannot correct a pay issue like this quickly?”

ABC Riverina news story